


Home

by Momma_Time



Series: Soft Nines [6]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Boys Being Boys, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-20 05:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16130456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Momma_Time/pseuds/Momma_Time
Summary: Ralph asks Nines to visit and it goes better than expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Indig0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indig0/gifts).



> Someone liked Nines and Ralph interacting in one of the other soft nines stories so I came to give them more.  
> Once again, I'm rubbing my anxious, aspy hands all over your faves and you can't stop me.  
> Characters that need more love in this game: Luther and Lucy for putting up with everyone's shit and fixing things and doing it with a glad heart

Ralph had invited him back. It was an odd transmission, a little broken and cryptic, and it took Nines a few minutes to decipher it. Oh.  
  
"Connor, Ralph has invited me for a visit. What do I say?"  
  
Connor looked up from his book. He was the picture of calm and content with his shoes and socks off, and feet tucked under him while he leaned against the arm of the couch. Nines had taken up residence on his lap, wanting to be close to someone after work. The only stress from today was Fowler yelling at him and Gavin over something trivial that Nines had tuned out. "Take him up on it? You can handle yourself if there's a problem. And if he needs help calming down, use what we use on ourselves. One of those things is bound to work."  
  
"Should I go alone?" Go without you.  
  
"I don't see why you couldn't. If you'd like me to come, I can stay outside or something and wait while you two uh, do whatever it is you do."  
  
Nines puffed his cheeks out and then sucked his lips in to bite them, eyes trained on the ceiling. "No. No, I need to go alone and...try to do this myself."  
  
"I'm only a few minutes away if you have a problem."  
  
"Thank you, Connor."  
  
\--  
  
Nines showed up in the house Ralph had been moved to—thanks to Markus intervening when he found out where Kara and Alice were going all of the time—ten minutes early. Nervousness was not a good feeling. It wasn't as bad as hate or fear or horror, but it was still sour and made him cringe.  
  
Just as he bucked up the courage to knock, the door flung open to reveal a beaming blond android who looked happier than a kid on Christmas.  
  
"Nines is here! Come in, come in." The android grabbed Nines' wrist and tugged him in, giddy that Nines didn't lie and actually came to visit him.  
  
Nines went stiff as a board at the contact, but didn't pull away or resist Ralph dragging him into the house; he figured it was better than worrying the other. The last thing he needed was to set him off. From what he saw of Connor's memory of him, Ralph could be a bit much if there was too...much.  
  
"Ralph has been waiting for you for hours. He-he wasn't sure if you'd come to visit or not." Ralph stopped once he pulled Nines into the living room and not so gently pushed Nines onto the couch. "Please sit."  
  
"It's...it's good to see you in a good mood, Ralph," he murmured, still trying to get his bearings.  
  
'Connor, what the fuck did you let me get myself into?'  
  
There was amusement in the reply, 'You got yourself into it. Need me to come save you?'  
  
'The jury is still out on that.'  
  
"Do you want a snack? Wait, no. Nines isn't...isn't a human, so he doesn't need snacks and...also isn't a snack and—"  
  
"Ralph." Bright eyes met Nines', startled by the interruption. What worked when he and Connor were nervous? Contact, quiet voice, dim light, and shit he hardly knew Ralph, but the other would assume he was coming onto him if he tried one or more of those at once. Instead, Nines awkwardly patted the couch next to him. "Just...breathe a second, yes?"  
  
"Right. Yes. Right, of course." Ralph dropped heavily onto the sofa beside Nines, and the let Nines put an arm out to gently force him to lean back against the back of the couch rather than sitting up straight at the edge. Nines immediately withdrew contact. "Thank you. Ralph, Ralph is—"  
  
"Nervous?" Nines offered.  
  
"Yes." He squirmed a little but didn't sit back up again. Yet.  
  
Nines finally took a moment to look Ralph over. He looked...better, far better than he had last time. He was cleaner, for one, and two, his clothes were new. The most noticeable was his face. There were only scars there now, but the tearing and bleeding had been healed. He hadn't realized he'd tilted his head to stare until Ralph started shifting nervously.  
  
"Ralph's friends, Kara and Luther, they...they had someone help me. N-not all of the way. Ralph was used to the pain, used to the slashes, and didn't want to lose them all and...so they didn't fix him all of the way, just as he wanted."  
  
"I'm sorry for staring, Ralph. I just—"  
  
"It's okay." Ralph patted Nines' knee then quickly withdrew his hand to pick at his sleeve. It was like Connor's coin or Nines rubbing his hands and arms.  
  
"You look good though, happy. Are you? Happy, I mean."  
  
Ralph stopped moving and looked to the window, every part of him seeming to relax at once. "Yes. He's... I'm...happy."  
  
Nines can't remember Ralph using the first person last time. That's new.  
  
"You're doing well, on your own, like this."  
  
"Not alone. Kara and Alice or Luther come to visit. And another, um, can't remember her name. She does this, and it slows everything down." Ralph reached up as he spoke and gently rested his hand against Nines' face, covering from his jaw to his temple on one side. "It feels bad at first, but then it stops, and then I can rest."  
  
"She's interfacing with you? Or just touching?"  
  
"Interface? Yes. Yes, that's right, and it's helpful."  
  
Nines held a hand up, "Would it help if I did it too or no?"  
  
Ralph yanked his hand back, shaking his head vigorously and looking near spooked. "No!"  
  
Nines looked away and dropped the hand. "Okay, I won't. I won't ask again either."  
  
"Good. Please."  
  
They sat in silence for a while, Nines rubbing his hands and Ralph playing with his sleeve again. When Nines was sure that Ralph was a little calmer, he broke the quiet.  
  
"Would you like to show me around your home?"  
  
"Yes!" The excited kid-on-Christmas Ralph was back and dragging Nines along behind him. He chattered on about every little detail and Nines just let him talk; when Ralph wasn't freaking out and was content, he wasn't too stressful to be around. Nines found that his energy was the hard part to keep up with. Ralph never stopped moving, and never dragged his feet as he bounded everywhere he went.  
  
This went on for an hour. Nines wasn't exaggerating when he later told Connor that Ralph told him about every single item of clothing and piece of furniture in the house, much to Connor's amusement. 'I'm glad he likes at least one of us.'  
  
Ralph seemed to run out of steam when he'd finished, falling quiet as he looked back at Nines, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Nines is quiet."  
  
"I'm simply listening to you talk. You have a nice home, something to be proud of. You're excited to share it, and I'm happy to listen as you do." He found he meant it.  
  
Ralph was quiet another second before he perked up again and took Nines' hand, guiding him up to the roof of the building. "You can't see the stars at night, but the sky is still pretty."  
  
"Maybe see if the girls will take you out of the city for an evening to stargaze."  
  
"He'd like that." Back to the third person.  
  
"I'm sure. I haven't gone yet either. Connor, Hank and I haven't had time to, but Hank is pushing to take us camping." Nines? Camping? Hell no. He refused to do it. Connor would likely make him anyway, but Nines would put up a fight.  
  
"Nines and Connor are close to this Hank. Who is he?"  
  
"He's..." What was Hank to them? "You know how Luther has adopted Alice? Plays the dad in their family?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Hank is like that. He's not our actual father, but...he tries to be. He's better at it with Connor, but he's doing his best in trying to include me too." Androids don't have parents or need them, well, except the child series, but it was nice to have one. "He's...a little broken, a little rough around the edges, but he's a good man and tries."  
  
"Ralph is...broken and tries."  
  
"And you're making a lot of progres. That's good, Ralph." He could hear Gavin muttering positive reinforcement in the back of his mind.  
  
They sat on the edge of the building as they looked at the sky and out to the city. There was always a hum of sound; it didn't matter if it was day or night, there was never silence. Nines was grateful for the quiet between them, at least for the moment. However, he was ready to head home and shut his sensors off for the night.  
  
"Nines?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Thank you for visiting me. I...liked having you here."  
  
Nines smiled over at the blond, "Thank you for inviting me."


	2. Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ralph has something to show Nines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame CyberSearcher for this. They mentioned it in the comments and well, here we are. Not as shippy as was suggested, but it's still pretty damn cute and could possibly head that way.  
> Sorry it's so short. I wanted to write this up before I got ready for work and rushed out the door this morning. Enjoy the tiny, un-beta'd thing y'all.

"Ralph," Nines started. "Where on earth are you taking me?"  
  
Ralph only smiled wider and tightened his grip on Nines' wrist. "It's a surprise! Trust me."  
  
Easier said than done, Nines thought in amusement. No matter. It wasn't like he couldn't handle himself if there was a problem. And the probability of something going wrong when they reached the roof was...there was a 37% chance of an attack and a 2.1% chance of dying if something happened. But with how even-tempered Ralph had been as of late, how much easier it was for him to remain calm, Nines wondered if he should adjust the percentages a little to accommodate it; perhaps he was just paranoid that everyone and everything was out to get him. Fucking hell, he was getting as bad as Gavin.  
  
Ralph finally pushed the door to the roof open and let go of Nines long enough to spin around and throw his arms out in a ta-dah! motion.  
  
Nines bit back a laugh. "Ralph, you are blocking my view of whatever it is you want to show me. I'm still stuck on the stairs."  
  
"Oh." Ralph scrambled out of the way to let Nines come out and see everything.  
  
"Shit." How the fuck had Ralph managed to do all of this since he moved into the building? "Ralph, this is incredible."  
  
Raised beds created a small maze on the roof of the apartment. Each flower bed was neatly tended to and had burst of color. If Nines wanted to give an example of the entire rainbow in one place, he'd direct you to Ralph's new garden. His sensors picked up on the different fragrances, both pleasant and not, and his database automatically matched them to their respective owners; the influx of information was overwhelming, so he quickly pushed them to the side of his vision. There was a little trellis arch in the center with white roses growing up the sides of it and over the top to make a shaded nook for the bench someone had brought up here. Nines didn't want to know if it was stolen or not and tried not to analyze how similar it was to those at the park nearby.  
  
He wasn't a fan of roses anymore either. Not after everything he and Connor went through with Amanda.  
  
"Thank you. Time for a tour!" Ralph was dragging him along again to visit every raised flowerbed, telling Nines about each plant he'd put in his rooftop garden and why he picked them. Then, he explained what all of them meant, along with any historical trivia to match them. It took forever, and Ralph could have simply transferred all of the information to Nines for the sake of time, but Nines didn't have the heart to interrupt Ralph's ramblings. The man was happy, and at peace without needing to be talked down from the ceiling; Nines wouldn't take that from him.  
  
"Ralph, this is beautiful. You put a lot of effort into all of this, did you not?" Nines gently squeezed Ralph's and smiled warmly at him. "How long did this take you?"  
  
"The roses were already here, but they were dying, so Ralph helped them. The rest took Ralph a month to build and then plant everything. Markus bought it all for me."  
  
Nines needed to thank Markus for what he did for Ralph. Again. Markus was too nice for his own good sometimes, but with the request Ralph surely sent him, Nines wouldn't blame Markus if he couldn't say 'no' this time.  
  
"That was kind of him. Perhaps we could take him some flowers as a thank you? I am sure he would appreciate that." Likely, Markus would put them in the foyer of his house, in his office, or on the coffee table in the library where he'd see it.  
  
"Markus likes flowers?"  
  
"I do not know, but if he helped you get what you needed to do all of this, I am certain he would. He would be delighted to have them if you gave him a gift of flowers." Nines smiled at Ralph's apparent glee at getting to put something together for Markus, who immediately planned which flowers to give him and why. It meant Nines had to listen to Ralph go on about flower languages again, but he didn't mind in the slightest.  
  
What he did mind, was when Ralph guided him over to the bench. Nines tensed up the closer they got and refused to sit at first, despite Ralph's insistent tugging. "Nines?"  
  
"Hm? Oh, I apologize. One moment." He took one more look at the roses and steeled himself against the onslaught of memories. Never again. He had never wanted to be near roses again and yet here he was, with his friend trying to get him to sit beneath a canopy of them.  
  
Nines was not the most willing.  
  
When he noticed Ralph's concern, he offered the man a timid smile. "I do not have the fondest memories of roses."  
  
"What did the roses ever do to you?" Holy shit. Ralph was teasing him.  
  
"Ha, no, not them. Someone else, but she was...obsessed with roses and making them perfect."  
  
"Roses are already perfect. They only need a hand to grow in the right direction." At that, Nines finally gave in to the next gentle tug and took a seat beside Ralph on the bench. "She couldn't improve them. They're fine just the way they are."  
  
Nines turned his gaze from the vines to Ralph and took in the easy smile, the kindness in Ralph's eyes, and surprisingly, the understanding.  
  
"You are...a good man, Ralph. Thank you."  
  
"Ralph knows this."  
  
That has Nines cracking up, which has Ralph grinning that he made another joke that made the other android happy. If only he could always make Nines happy, then he'd be content.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagined Lucy being the one to do the healing on his face and almost had Ralph say something silly about it adding to his charm or something to keep the scars but then I was like nah, another time when he's had more time to heal maybe.
> 
> I also almost had him and Nines interface at the end as a show of trust in Ralph's end but decided against it for a similar reason. They need to be a little closer and Ralph needs more time to grow before something like that could happen between these two. They're not ready for level five friendship things.
> 
>  
> 
> Prompts for this series?  
> Come say hi at ixhadbadxdays on Tumblr.


End file.
